iNDICA NEWS BUREAU-
Dhirendra Prasad, a California resident and a former employee at Apple Inc., has been charged with defrauding, money laundering and mail fraud, the district court for the Northern District of California announced on Friday.
A press release issued by the court states that a federal criminal case has been filed against Prasad, with defrauding his former employer Apple Inc. of millions of dollars. Prasad has been charged with money-laundering
and tax evasion, US attorney Stephanie M. Hinds and Internal Revenue Service-Criminal Investigation (IRS-CI) Special Agent in Charge Mark H. Pearson announced on March 18.
Prasad is scheduled to make his initial appearance on the criminal charges in the San Jose federal court before US Magistrate Judge Susan van Keulen on March 24.
Prasad, 52, a resident of Mountain House in San Joaquin County, has been charged with five crimes. In the first count, Prasad is charged with engaging in a conspiracy to commit wire and mail fraud from 2013 through January 2019.
In the second and third counts, Prasad has been charged with separate conspiracies to launder fraud proceeds.
The fourth count charges Prasad with conspiring to evade a co-conspirator’s tax liabilities for several years, and the fifth count charges Prasad with evading his own income tax liabilities.
According to the press note, Prasad was employed by Apple from December 2008 through December 2018.
For most of that time, Prasad was a “buyer” in Apple’s Global Service Supply Chain and responsible for purchasing parts and services from vendors on Apple’s behalf. Prasad is alleged to have exploited his position by engaging in multiple different schemes to defraud Apple, including taking kickbacks, stealing parts, and causing Apple to pay
for items and services it never received, resulting in a loss of more than $10,000,000.
Prasad has also been accused of evading tax on the schemes’ proceeds, which he also laundered.
Prasad’s alleged co-conspirators are Robert Gary Hansen and Don M. Baker, both of whom reside in the Central District of California. Hansen and Baker both owned vendor companies that did business with Apple, and the charges allege they each conspired with Prasad to commit fraud and money laundering.
Neither Hansen nor Baker have been charged with Prasad, but they were each earlier charged in separate federal criminal cases. Both have admitted to their involvement.
The State had filed a civil forfeiture action related to the criminal charges against Prasad in federal court on September 24, 2021.
